posting delay/family matters...

If it seems like I left you hanging and dropped off the face of the earth, it's because my mother-in-law is going through the very painful and long process of dying.

She is a sweet person and it is hard to see her going through this. Dorothy has been down here in Santa Paula everyweekend and sometimes during the week. I have been down here nearly every weekend.

While today is not a good day, she has been more expressive today than we've seen her in weeks. It has helped me today to know that she very much doesn't want to drag this out. That has been very clear. Though she can't speak more than one or two words a day, if at all, today she seems to be aware and communicating her desire to be done with this. My wife and her brother amended their mom's comfort care order today, choosing to no longer allow oral antibiotics. This will probably hasten things, since she has been constantly fighting infections. She is now strictly on pain meds and oxygen, if needed. She is in such pain, and the doctor said the antibiotics are just going to prolong that pain until the inevitable comes. She is ready to go.

Please pray for her, if you would, and for my wife, Dorothy, her brother, David, and the rest of the family.

Thanks,
Owen

P.S. There is at least one more part of silence coming, probably two. Plus I still have a number of things to share from the monastery experience. Just please be patient for awhile.

Grace and peace.